RW Essen 01/02 Update
I scheduled 6 friendlies over the Winter Break, to be accurate. We went 4-1-1 over the 6, losing only to IFK Goteberg in a match we held our own in. We drew Finnish KJK 1:1, beat FC Bayern's "A" side 4-1, and, in a match I meant to gage our side's readiness for promotion, thumped Div 2 Greuther Furth 4-0. We also beat Belgian AA Gent as well. The 6 home friendlies spun us an extra 150k. Almost enough to cover our wage bill for a week.
We resumed the season on January 27th with a win over Uerdingen. We then lost 2-3 to Aue in a match that made me express a similar sentiment. However, Dresdner did not expand their 5 pt advantage on us. And from here we launched on a fine run of form in February.
3 wins, 1 draw, saw us within 1 point of our prey. We then were to face Dortmund (A), you remember them, we beat them 6-1 before, in Dortmund. Alas, this match was played at home, where our form has been less sure. Nothing underlined this more than the dismal 0-2 loss we received. We thoroughly outplayed and outshot Dortmund, but our goalkeeping was abysmal. I have yet to figure out how a keeper can let in the only 2 shots he faced the whole match and still 'earn' a 6 rating.
However, the March 10th loss seemed to motivate our side, now 2 points off Dresdner, we refused to lose another match all season. 4 wins, 3 draws to finish. We pulled 2 points ahead of Dresdner ourselves and them faced them on May 5th. We scored early on through a beautiful piece of team play. But the referees seemed intent on letting Dresdner back into the match. Finally in the 80th minute, our defense gave them a gift. Our left back stuck out his arm on a shot and deliberately handballed. He was sent off, and they got a PK. The result was a 1-1 draw.
However, that's as close as Dresdner got the rest of the way. They failed to capitalize on our 2:2 draw at Munster the next match, and we won 4-0 to close out the season.
So, RW Essen promotes to Div 2 as winners of the Regionalliga North and possesses the best record in the whole Regionalliga with 70 points.
But that did not merit us a cash prize of even a pittance. No bonus to the pot. At this point I'd even have taken a band-aid for the gunshot wound that's our finances. Of course, we'll get some miniscule TV contract money going into the Bundesliga next season, but that's not going to help too much.
The bad news is, we are 8.3mil in arrears. Our season ticket sales will just cover our wages for the summer, so I expect we'll start next season still a full 5mil in arrears, at any rate. I've sold 4 players so far to slash the wage bill, replacing them with 4 incoming youth players. My top goal scorer is going to be 35 next season and sports a pace equal to the final digit in his age. And the board is still only "pleased" with my performance due to our financial plight.
So I'm pretty much reduced to the off-chance that someone will come in and bail this mess out. As I expect it'll be 2-3 years of wage slashing before I can even be back to breaking even. And if I do that, will I be able to stay in Division 2? I don't see how. I'm hoping we will see 8000 a match to start next season, but that still means we will bleed at least 400k a month.
Even if I break down and sell my best player, the freescoring midfielder (who finished with 13 goals, 13 assists for the season), I'd get, at best, 2mil for him. That would help, but it wouldn't come near filling the black hole. And that is assuming someone makes a bid for him. So far, despite his unquestioned results this season, there are no bidders, so the question is merely academic.
So we're going up to Div 2 is the good news. The bad news is that I have "no reasonable offer refused" posted over my players. And how will that work itself out in our attempt to stay in the Bundesliga next season? I really don't know. The 4-0 win over Greuther Furth would seem to bode well, but if none of the key players from the side are left, will it really matter?
[This message was edited by shawng1 on 28 January 2003 at 17:09.]
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